​UNSPORTSmanlike Conduct

I think my favorite part of watching the head coach of a professional sports team go full-Bill Belichick is that they always tend to make the idea of them using modern technology seem like it's a slap in their SnapFace. I don't doubt for a second that Guy Boucher has never checked the "sky is falling" overreactions of his fanbase by scouring the abject dumpster fire that is relatively anonymous postgame chatter. I'm not quite sure I have ever seen the man bear a smile, and - despite the "rotting animal in the ass" vibe that tends to emanate from hockey twitter - it's pretty impossible to survive the wild, wild web of social media if you are humorless.

Still, acting like he would need to elicit the help of 'The Geek Squad' to use a search engine is absolutely comical. I know that the Senators' coach looks like he was picked right out of a lair as he was concocting some evil plan to kill James Bond before his video game came out and was immediately placed behind Ottawa's bench to concoct some evil plan to suppress transition offense in 2017, but I'm fairly certain he's familiar with the internet. He's probably not writing javascript or anything, but surely he's shopped online. Maybe it was for skin cream to ease the wrinkles caused by that forever furrowed brow or maybe it was for a tutorial book titled 'How To Win With An Inferior Team 4 Grumpiez'. Either way, Guy Boucher could definitely figure out how to sign up for Twitter if he ever had a change of heart and wanted to subject himself to more criticism from people that largely don't know what the fuck they are talking about.

I do, however, agree with his larger point. I'm not sure why a reporter thought it would be wise to pepper a head coach of a team that has defied odds to get to the Eastern Conference Finals with a question about the "quality" of hockey he's overseeing. If Guy Boucher's job was to produce aesthetically pleasing puck he would already be sitting at home petting the white cat on his lap until September. Pretty off-base to assume that he should concern himself with appeasing the unappeasable general public while also continuing to lead a team on what would be an extremely unlikely championship run. The Ottawa Senators could act as Ambien to the entire NHL viewership by mucking it up with a more skilled squad, and Guy Boucher wouldn't be any less ecstatic if it resulted in a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. You might not be able to tell from his facial expression, but you definitely could by checking his anti-social browser history.